Trauma Center: Last Call
by Resting Deeply
Summary: (AU) Two years following the events of Neo-GUILT in Angeles Bay, Caduceus has changed and new power positions have been established. Once again, terror reigns upon the world in a new way that threatens everything humanity has ever created. How will Caduceus combat the new threats that arrive and who will stand and fall out of desperation for treatment?
1. Cloud Nine

Trauma Center: Last Call

"Two years ago we were all at a lost about infectious diseases capable of swift mutation. G.U.I.L.T. has seen its final case six months ago in a small town in Canada about four hundred miles north of Seattle and we can finally say that the threat of manipulating viruses is officially over."

The international conference was underway in Angeles Bay, California. There were a large group of doctors and medical scientists in the crowd all occupying their chairs with notepads and pens. Pictures were being snapped in the background as news reporters gathered their questions to ask the man speaking at the conference.

"Sir, can you say with one hundred percent accuracy that G.U.I.L.T. has been eradicated? The public would feel much safer knowing that no traces of G.U.I.L.T. existed worldwide."

The man standing on the stage with a headset gave a cocky smirk and turned around before pointing up at a large screen deploying from the ceiling downwards. On the screen were graphs and statistical data in regard of G.U.I.L.T.

"You see, these are the trends of G.U.I.L.T. following the outbreaks five years ago spanning from Africa to North America and Europe." The man said, pointing up to the right side of the screen. "These statistics show that following the eradication of all seven strains and passing of Adam, the rate of infection dropped fifty percent in one year before panning out two years after."

Numerous murmurs and celebrations chirped from the crowd of people before settling back down. The man continued.

"However! After the demise of the skirt trails of Delphi and death of Patrick Mercer as well as the seizing of Reina Mayuzumi, there was a very sharp decline of eighty three percent in just the span of a year!"

The reporter smiled in response and clapped as well. The crowd joined her in celebration before they calmed down and once again the attention went back to the news reporter.

"My final question today is; what will the next step be for Caduceus and the current state of medicine?"

The man presenting clicked a button on his remote and the screen went black before retracting upwards. "Well, we plan on returning to our roots as well as focusing on the new B9-virus that has shown high numbers in northern places like Canada and Alaska. One thing we can promise for the future;

G.U.I.L.T. is eradicated off the face of the Earth."

[Caduceus U.S.A, Laboratory]

The clock read ten-forty-three P.M. and the day was entering a new stage. Right about now all the children who were enrolled in public school were long asleep and the parents were likely either going to sleep or getting up for a night job.

For doctors and nurses of Caduceus, this was another time of day just like all of the others.

Even though the doors were briefly quiet and the phone calls were at a low, there were still things to be done.

It was dark outside and the moon was creeping around some puffy white clouds just beside Mt. Balboa, and the streets were finally as cold as the air.

"Hey! Make sure you wrap up your paper before midnight. The Director is going to chew my ASS up if any of you are late and if I get chewed up, so will your freetime!"

The laboratory was busy as ever with a half dozen new interns sitting with their faces glued to the laptops in their arms. The stools they were sitting on were far from comfortable but with free coffee supplied, where was the issue?

Victor Niguel, who was now the head of RD in Caduceus, runs a tight ship. All of his interns nearly put in fifty hour weeks and more often than not just slept in their vehicles or went out late to drive home. Unlike them, however, Victor practically lived in Caduceus. His time went into research and staying on top of his interns at all times of the day when they weren't in.

"Yes, sir!" A mid-twenty-year-old intern shouted back over the sound of typing.

"I need to talk to the general surgeon about the patient we're getting next week." Victor muttered as he approached the door and slung it open. Before walking through he looked back at his team. "If either one of you need me I'll be in hell."

With no response, he decided he said what he needed to and walked away.

Victor strolled his way through Caduceus, grabbing some fresh coffee from the breakroom before continuing downstairs to surgery. The main entrance to surgery was crowded with nurses and doctors moving back and forth between rooms and empty patient beds.

"Hey, Kyra, can you check to see if Room 32 is free?" A doctor said which went answered by the woman he was talking to. At least, that's what Victor assumed.

Pondering his eyes through the crowd he spotted a familiar face and briefly smirked.

"Hey, Les!" Victor barked as he walked towards the asian nurse who was looking over a chart. Upon hearing her nickname, she turned her head towards the hostile scientist.

"Dr. Niguel, what can I do for you?" Leslie Sears chirped, turning towards him and smiling. Over the two years her outfit was changed to move on from past horizons. Her new outfit was very similar but now a red color instead. Also, on her name tag it read, "Elite Trauma Nurse."

"Yeah, I'm looking for Tyler. Tell me he hasn't gone home yet…" Victor grimaced.

"Yes, he has." Leslie said with a frown. With as happy as she looked, Victor found it hard to be very upset with her.

"Damnit. I should have expected that. All he does is sleep these days." Victor muttered and started to back away. Once he got about ten feet from Leslie he turned around and started walking away.

Leslie felt bad and thought about how someone would feel being signed up for whatever Victor needed.

"Dr. Niguel!" Leslie hollered over the group of people who went about their procedures as if she hadn't done or said anything. "I believe that the Head of Experimental Surgery is still here."

Victor stopped where he was and put up two fingers as he walked away. Turning right from here, he started down the hallway leading to another staircase down. Looking up at the top of the entrance, he saw the words,

"EXPERIMENTAL SURGERY: Authorized Personnel Only."

A half smile came across his face as he made his way into the ward.

Here, there was a different lay out.

The floor was still the same as the beautiful mason floor of Caduceus, but the walls were comforting bright colors. At the front desk was a woman with black hair, but she didn't smile when she saw Victor and instead frowned.

"He's in his office…" She mumbled. Victor smiled now and didn't react, continuing past her station. He wasn't known as being a very friendly guy and some people knew it better than others.

This branch was built over a year ago and was designed to be a first response to any outbreak of infectious disease as well as a place for experimental procedures to be taught, executed, and learned.

Victor arrived at an office at the very end of one of three hallways in the bottom floor and didn't check the nametag before barging in.

"-I'm glad to hear that. I don't think anybody else could have carried out that procedure besides you in that scenario…" The eyes of the doctor on the phone turned to meet those of Victor who barely hesitated to start spewing out words. The doctor stuck up his index finger before looking back to the carpet of his office. There was a long pause before he smiled. "It was a pleasure working with you, too. Keep me posted on her long term recovery. Especially contact me if she decides to pick up surgery again!" Following this, there were a couple more exchanges of words before the doctor set the phone down and turned to face Victor. "Yes, Victor?"

"FINALLY! I don't have as much time as you do over here, you know?" Victor bickered.

"I'm sorry, it was an-"

"Important call, yeah-yeah, whatever. Listen, Tyler's not here right now so I'm dumping this on you. Check this out."

The doctor didn't respond and instead just nervously signed before approaching him and taking a look at the binder he was holding.

"Is this a patient?"

"No, it's a binder. But, inside this binder is information about a patient." Victor grunted, seeing the doctor look up at his eyes as if questioning his sanity but nonetheless said nothing. He took the binder and opened it up after seeing the name.

The patient in question was a sixteen year old male named Michael Harley. The binder had endless pages of medical history, parental details, and etc. However, the highlight of the binder was in the back.

"Hm… Unknown causes of respiratory failure? This is alarming." The doctor said before skimming through. He saw the words, "Chiral Reaction: Negative" which were nice to read for some reason. Just knowing it wasn't a hazardous disease like one from the past was soothing. Further down the page it was a list of medications and procedures carried out by past doctors that yielded no results. "Isn't Nurse Sears the one who usually brings me these?"

"Yeah, but I feel like there's something bigger at play here. I mean, the white blood count is normal and all liver activity reads average. Respiratory failure doesn't just happen, you know that." Victor said, tapping the binder twice. "You can keep this, I have a copy of my own that we can use if you lose this one. They're keeping him in Colorado until his parents return from a business trip. Once they get there, they're flying all of them over here to see us. Tyler was supposed to be here to take it but if you're free…"

The doctor smiled. "Of course. This sounds serious and every patient deserves to know what is causing them-"

"Yeah-yeah, I know. You got a big ass heart. Thank you, I appreciate it." Victor muttered as he backed away from the office door and left as if nothing had happened. The doctor stepped into the hallway and watched him go.

"I guess I'll see you later, Dr. Niguel!"

"Likewise, Dr. Stiles."

[Nurse Station]

"Trust me, you'll start getting the hang of it here."

Two nurses were talking to each other. One was wearing a very dark blue scrub outfit with her black hair in a ponytail. Her facial expression showed sweat like she had been running around all over the place.

"I hope so… I can't help but feel like I'm not working fast enough!" The nurse said with a despair look. Caduceus was in no way, shape, or form a run of the mill hospital and it required the toughest of employees to work there.

"You'll get used to it in no time!" The shorter nurse chirped. "When I first started here I was struggling to keep the person I transferred here with in check, much less keep my own work complete." The words seem to make small work with the new nurse who nodded in response. "Just make sure that your patients are comfortable in your presence and you're logging all your time!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

With that, the young nurse jogged off into the sliding door which opened and closed behind her. The blonde nurse was left alone in the hallway to her thoughts. An open window nearby let in a breeze from the cold outside at night. She sighed with relaxation and closed her eyes.

"Hey, boss." A male voice called out from behind her, the sound of dress shoes tapping the mason floor in approach. The nurse grew a grin on her face and turned around slightly.

"Oh, Dr. Stiles!" The nurse exclaimed, stepping forward toward the man.

"Sorry, I thought I should run something by you before you're off today." Derek said with a smile. "Are you busy right now?"

"Not at all! What's up?" She responded, sliding her hands into her two front pockets.

"Well, I just got done talking to Dr. Niguel and he presented me with a new patient coming in early next week." Derek said. "I figured you would want as much warning as possible."

"Is that so? Was Dr. Chase not around or something? Usually Leslie-"

Derek interrupted her with a half chuckle. "That's what I said! I guess it was a special case. Here, take a look."

The nurse took the binder and flipped it open, doing very similar to what Derek did and skim through the information before settling on the important papers in the back. Once done with reading, her eyes wandered up to his.

"That sounds really serious, Doctor." She muttered before looking once again.

"Yeah, no kidding. I figured we could tackle this like old times sake." Derek said as he plopped his hands into his pockets. "What do you say, Angie?"

Angie Thompson grinned and handed the binder back to Derek before holding her arms behind her back. With the division of branches, the two worked together less often than they used to but kept up to date on their friendship and even hung out outside of work more often than not. However, it had been two consecutive years since they got to tackle something unknown.

And this, of course, was impossible to pass up.

"Of course! I would love to assist you in the O.R!"

Even if it meant diving into the unknown, for they were the patients last call.


	2. Truth Be Told

Trauma Center: Last Call

Chapter 1, Episode 2: **Truth Be Told**

[Director's Office]

"You wanted to see me, Director?" Derek said from behind a closed office door. There was a short pause before a familiar male voice yelled out to him.

"Come in, Derek."

He twisted the door knob and ushered his way into the office of his Director and closed the door behind him. Once he was in, his stood front and center.

"Is everything okay?" Derek asked nervously.

"Yes. We invited you here in regard of your patient that you agreed to take on in a few days." Director Kasal said. "I've read over the information on him, Michael, and I am concerned about something."

Derek raised an eyebrow and opened the binder he brought with. In the section where his test results were, Derek planted his eyes but found nothing.

"I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, sir." He said quietly.

"It's not in his patient file, don't waste your time on that right now. Here, come here." Sidney said as he flipped his computer screen around which revealed a bright white document titled, "Unknown." Nearly the entire page was patient charts but they appeared to be for deceased people meaning whatever happened, they were dead now. His eyes kept continuing until he saw the first person on the list had, "Respiratory failure." As well as the second, and third, all the way down to the fifteenth one.

"Hey-- these are the same symptoms my patient is presenting with now!" Derek exclaimed.

"Exactly. I'm not one hundred percent certain that these are related but if so, then I'm concerned on what is causing all of these."

"You mean these people were in perfect health just before…?" Derek asked.

"Yes. They were admitted to the hospital days before death. It starts with respiratory distress like coughing, respiratory infections, and then it evolves upwards." Sidney replied before turning his computer screen back around and standing at his desk space. "Don't worry, Derek. I'm more than confident in your capabilities."

Derek stood in silence for a couple of seconds before looking up at Sidney.

"I won't let him die. I just can't help but be curious about what this is and… how those other patients went about getting this infection."

Sidney sat back down and seemed to shrug off the question by not having an answer. Instead, all he said was, "you're free to go." With that, Derek ushered himself out and once he was alone in his thoughts in the hallway, he shivered.

"Why can't I shake this feeling that this is something much more serious?" Derek said in his head, starting to walk back to his station. On his way, he grabbed some warm coffee to maybe jitter up his brain and take his attention off of this.

[Conference Room]

"So, May, are you ready to start the conference for our patient today?" Derek said calmly, sitting down at the round table with Tyler, Victor, Stephen, and a couple of other doctors.

May was a shorter woman at the age of twenty three and height of 5'1. Her hair was cinnamon blonde and it was roughly mid shoulder length. She wore glasses over her eyes with a get-up that matched her professionalism. Out of all the assistants that Derek has been working with since Angie, she has to be his favorite one. May wears a crimson red nurse outfit with high heel boots instead of wedges or heels.

"Yes, Dr. Stiles." May said, her lower pitch voice grabbing the attention of everybody since it was only her third week working with him. "Our patient today is thirty eight year old Gabriella Washington. Five days ago Ms. Washington arrived at Hope Hospital complaining of stomach pains and requested tests to indicate any bowel obstructions and food poisoning. However, tests indicated a mass on the large intestines that was one inch in diameter. Due to the rugged shape, Dr. Kasal recommended her to Caduceus where she has been getting treatment over time. Today, we will be extracting the tumor to alleviate the stress and pain for our patient." May stopped for a moment.

"What will your procedure be?" Stephen asked.

"I'm glad you asked." Derek said. "We plan on going in with the forceps. If we can inject a stabilizer into the tumor and stop it from cracking or bursting, we can lift it upwards with the forceps and use the scalpel to excise around the base. We will have synthetic membranes on the side as well as a full stock of antibiotic gel for safe measures. The stabilizer will be FRZ-Stabilizer."

Stephen nodded confidently and smiled.

"Then it sounds like you have your treatment plan. I think you're more than ready to proceed!"

[Operating Room]

"As said before, Dr. Stiles, our patient is suffering from a tumor on the large intestines that is roughly an inch in diameter. Extreme care is going to need to be exercised as any wrong marks with the scalpel could spread toxic material onto the organ and cause burns." May said.

"Yeah, good point." Derek said with a gaze over to her. "You look nervous."

"A little, yeah…"

"Hey, don't be. Right now the only person who needs our attention is Gabriella. With your help I can make it so she lives a happy life but I need your head in the game. Are you with me?" Derek exclaimed. His voice was stern and relentless but it made its mark on May who shook off and took a deep breath.

"Yes, I'm here, Dr. Stiles."

"Great. What are my objectives?"

"Your objectives for this procedure will be to: Inject FRZ-Stabilizer into the tumor, and excise the tumor carefully." May stated. With one last look at the vital machine she gave him a nod.

"Alright, let's begin the operation!"

[Gallery]

Angie watched from the gallery. It had been months since they worked together and she felt like there was something off. Ever since Robert Hoffman stepped down as Director and Sidney Kasal took his place the building operated differently.

Naturally, Derek had the capability to run a department dedicated to the procedures only he could carry out and Angie herself was professional enough as well as reliable enough to support her own branch in Caduceus. But, this drove a fence between the two. Sure, hanging out when they weren't on the clock was one thing but it didn't fill the gap or the trust they had when under the knife by each others side.

It almost felt like she was losing something that wasn't hers to begin with. When she met him in Hope Hospital he didn't owe any development to you, he didn't owe her medical prowess or an entire journey across the world to solve an illness.

Watching May assist Derek with tools, hanging him the tools that she used to. Did he trust her? Did he believe that she was a better assistant than she was? They worked together for years but did that come to nothing?

Angie recalled the plane flight from Angeles Bay after the defeat of Neo-GUILT just two years prior.

Two professionals pushing a friendship to a bond and overtime, they grew.

"I know I told you I wanted to be a master assistant…" Angie muttered to herself under her breath. "But, I didn't want to accomplish that without you."

"Hey, you haven't." Tyler said from behind her, which made Angie jump out of her skin.

"Huh!?" Angie shrieked before turning around and seeing the blonde doctor facing the window behind her. "How long have you--"

"I know you and Derek have had major connections over the year, but…" Tyler stopped and chuckled. "You're probably the greatest and quickest assistant the world has ever seen. There's nothing you and Derek CAN'T do together." There was a pause before he turned to face her. "But the world isn't calling for the surgical duo to end a life threatening disease. Not right now."

Angie said nothing.

"Don't worry, someday soon you and Derek will work together. Besides, I think Victor told me he signed you on as his assistant in that patient later this week. Maybe think about that?"

"Yeah, you're right." Angie muttered with a small smile. "Do you think he likes working with her more than--"

"You? Not a chance." Tyler started with a dismissive laugh. "Derek and you traveled across the world, met terrifying odds against Delphi, and bonded the whole way. This is a nurse he's been working with for a handful of days now. Be real here!"

A smile crept across her face now. Internally, she kicked herself for even thinking otherwise at all and so she looked over at Tyler and nodded.

"Thank you, Dr. Chase."

[Operating Room]

"Here's the forceps, Doctor." May said, handing the forceps over to Derek who seemed to grow slightly impatient with the speed decrease from Angie. He was so used to being handed his tools at lightning speeds especially when under the Healing Touch. How would she keep up if he needed to invoke it?

Pointless right now.

"Thank you." Derek replied as he gripped the top of the tumor. The shape didn't change much but he took that chance to inject the FRZ-Stabilizer and wait. Within five seconds the tumor hardened and before it solidified, he dug his scalpel into the bottom edges along the tumor. Blood began pooling from the bottom and he frowned.

"Here's the drain! Once that blood is removed you can continue removing the tumor." She exclaimed. Once the whining of the drain started and the blood was washed away, Derek picked back up his scalpel and drug it another third of the way around the base. Once again, blood started pooling and it was a little thicker this time. The drain took twice as long to clean up this time around and once he got two thirds the way through, he injected some more FRZ-Stabilizer. This slowed the bleeding again.

"Alright, making the final incision on the tumor." Derek announced as he pried some more at the thin skin at the basin. Like butter, the tumor peeled off but blood began pooling rapidly and the vitals dropped significantly.

May gasped and Derek internally cringed at her behavior but wrote it off as semi-noob behavior to say the least.

"I'll need some stabilizer and get the drain started again!" Derek exclaimed as he quickly filled a syringe full of normal stabilizer and injected it quickly. It was a battle of dropping vitals as blood continued to pour out from the damaged area. Deciding to stop wasting the stabilizer, he applied full drainage on the wound and threw down some synthetic membranes onto the old wound. A little bit of antibiotic gel solidified the spot and the vitals stopped dropping.

"Wow…" May mumbled. "That was incredible! You really brought him back from the edge, Dr. Stiles!"

Derek didn't offer a smile this time around but instead set down his scalpel and held out his right hand.

"The patient isn't safe yet, we can't rest now."

Recalling Angie's voice in his head he grew a smile as the sutures were handed to him. A fraction of a second later, the entry wound was closed and bandaged thus ending the procedure.

"Great work, Doctor!" May celebrated as Derek ripped his surgical gloves off and tossed them into the trash bin.

"Thank you, May. I couldn't have done it without your help." Keeping his response professional and short, he started walking away. "Please take our patient to post-OP and notify the family that the operation was a success."

Angie watched from the observation deck with a smile. Yet another surgery done by the doctor she helped grow.

Even if it was with someone else.

[Parking Lot]

Derek waited in his car that was parked in the parking lot. The sun had set hours ago and so his headlights provided a clear line of sight from the front of his vehicle to the walls of Caduceus. His engine was on and he laid his head back into the seat with the rocking of his vehicle.

He didn't dare close his eyes as he knew as soon as a milligram of comfort hit his bloodstream he was going to be rudely awaken sometime whether it be by Angie or by the gasless and depleted battery of his car.

The muffled sound of heels clicked outside of his vehicle until he felt a tap at his passenger window.

Derek jumped in response before noticing it was Angie, and his face lit up. Quickly, he pushed a lever on his driver side door and the car unlocked for her and she opened the door. Once Angie sat down inside, she let out a very exasperated sigh and closed the door.

"Ready to go?" Derek asked, his hoarse voice obvious in the dead of night. It was just past eleven o'clock and all they could think about was sleep.

"Yes." Angie said softly. "I'm ready to go to bed forever at this rate…"

Derek chucked and shifted his vehicle into reverse and backed out of his spot. Once he got going towards Angie's place near Hope Hospital, the silence forced a topic from the both of them.

"How was your day today?" Angie asked.

"Oh geez, it was something." Derek spat out. "I worked with May some more and… it reminded me of working with you at Hope!"

Angie took it in the only way she knew possible; negative.

"I didn't read May as the professional type." Angie snipped back.

Derek half smiled, knowing that Angie took it differently than she did. "No! Actually, she's still deathly afraid of sudden changes in surgery." He said. "Some days I really like these new changes and others… I really wish I could go back."

Angie stopped for a moment and looked over at her doctor. "What do you mean?"

Now it was Derek's turn to pause as he approached a stop light with very few people behind or around him. "Well… I never would want G.U.I.L.T. to show its cruel face to the world ever again." Derek muttered before stopping and rubbing his tired eyes. "But, I also miss the times where you and I were growing up together. You really taught me a lot and I feel like now that I know everything I need to in order to run a whole experimental procedure program that things have changed. It's almost like time has stopped lately."

Angie didn't say a word for a minute, waiting for her brain to slow down. Was he hinting that he missed working with her too?

"You know?" Derek said sheepishly.

"Yes, I think I do." Angie said with a grin. "I know some day soon you and I will join each other in the O.R. just like we used to when we first joined Caduceus. I look forward to the day we get to, Dr. Stiles."

Derek turned right into her apartment complex parking lot and stopped in a parking spot before shifting the vehicle into park. With a dramatic pause, he looked over to her.

"I miss you, Angie."

Angie looked down at her hands for a second before putting them on the door handle, letting the door open as she put her legs out and stood up. Before she walked away, she turned back.

"I miss you too, Dr. Stiles."

With a closing of the door, Derek felt the tears holding back behind his eyes as he realized that something needed to change. Maybe someone else could run the nurse department? Or the experimental procedures program could end? Either way, something needed to happen.

They were the prodigal partnership.

Always under the knife.

[Chapter two served up! I'm hoping this will be a continuation from UTK2 leading up to New Blood, explaining the change from Angeles Bay to the interior of USA.]


End file.
